“When unprotected eyes look at the sun for more than just a glimpse, the intense visible light and focused infrared radiation can damage or even destroy light-sensitive rod and cone cells inside the retina, or leave permanent scarring,” GHS said.

James Pressly, MD, an ophthalmologist at the GHS Eye Institute, said looking at the sun during an eclipse can actually be more dangerous because the darkness accompanying the eclipse may keep people from squinting and averting their eyes.

Eyes can be damaged even if only a small sliver of the sun is visible, and people likely won’t feel any pain or indications that damage is being done until later, and the damage could last for lengthy periods of time.

To protect against this eye damage, GHS is urging eclipse viewers to wear NASA-approved glasses that have special filters that block at minimum nearly one hundred percent of the sun’s visible and non-visible rays.

GHS said sunglasses won’t do the trick.

The GHS Eye Institute is offering NASA-approved glasses at their three Upstate locations while the spectacles last.

The glasses can be picked up at the Eye Institute campuses at 104 Simpson Street in Greenville, 333 South Pine Street in Spartanburg, and 109 Fleetwood Drive in Easley.